Freelance Motoring Writer

Just as Japan Inc bailed out of two-door compact coupes – witness the death of the Toyota Celica and Honda Prelude to name just two – the South Korean car-makers were starting to get interesting in that very market segment.

Hyundai threw the first fair dinkum punch with its Tiburon, which eventually morphed into a decent V6-powered coupe, and then moved on to the Veloster with its quirky asymmetric styling giving it two doors on the passenger's side and a single one on the driver's.

And somewhere between those two, both chronologically and in design terms, was Kia's first proper coupe effort, the Koup, which landed here in 2009.

Based on the Cerato, itself a good-looking vehicle, the Koup immediately made an impact thanks to styling that was way better than we'd come to expect from Kia at that time.

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It's not a big car by any stretch, but good overall proportions make it look tight and compact.

And the long-front, short-rear treatment as well as the purposeful glasshouse made it look – from some angles – like a scaled-down version of the US market's reborn Chevrolet Camaro. Clearly, this was one they got right.

Of course, once you got past the sexy looks, the Koup was pretty much straight Cerato underneath.

Again, though, this was no terrible thing and it meant a four-cylinder engine measuring two litres and cranking out 115kW of power.

And rather than simply transfer the Cerato's suspension setting across to the Koup, Kia went to the trouble of making sure the slightly lighter two-door still rode and handled properly. That meant lowering the ride height by 10 millimetres and stiffening up the front stabiliser bar and the damper settings for a sportier feel.

These firmer settings didn't, however, make the Koup a rough-riding brute of a thing, but it did give a little more suspension control while retaining the same supple feel as the Cerato.

The big catch is that if you want a Koup with an automatic gearbox (and many buyers did) you're out of luck unless you can afford a near-new example (early 2011 onwards).

That's because the first Koups had a choice of either a five-speed manual gearbox or an automatic with just four gears.

It was at least one ratio short and it took the edge off both performance and the car's otherwise decent fun factor.

The better news is that the manual version was actually pretty good with a slick shift action and a progressive clutch pedal. So, if you can physically and legally drive a manual, our advice would be that you do so.

The alternative is that 2011 model we're talking about which got a six-speed automatic and the option of a six-speed manual. The latter remains the best version of the Koup for keener drivers.

Regardless of which transmission you end up with, the engine can feel a bit gritty when you start to rev it hard.

This seems to be a common complaint among owners, but isn't anything to worry about from a reliability point of view.

You do, however, want to give the interior a careful once over before handing over the money.

The Kia's interior plastics are okay, but not up to the quality of some of the Japanese competition and they can start to squeak and rattle quite early in the car's life.

Another source of an annoying rattle can be the shift-knob on manual versions.

The fix here is pretty easy and involves removing the knob, applying some thread-locking compound and putting it back together again.

As with all modern cars with airbags and anti-lock brakes, make sure that any warning lights for these systems that illuminate during start-up quickly go out again after a few seconds.

Any warning light that stays illuminated needs to be checked out, preferably using Kia's own on-board diagnostic system which any dealership will be able to check for faults.

While on the subject of dealerships and servicing, make sure that any Koup you're buying has a complete and up-to-date service handbook.

Kia's excellent five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty was initiated in 2008, meaning that all Koups sold in this country not only come under the warranty's umbrella, but that even the first batch sold would still have some of that warranty applying.

That's transferable to subsequent owners, but would only be honoured by Kia in the case of a car that has been maintained and serviced correctly.

Suddenly, the Koup with the big blanks in its service history doesn't look quite like the bargain it may first have seemed.

And just to prove that even modern cars can confuse and confound, how's this for one from left field: An automatic Koup that refuses to shift out of Park might well have faulty brake lights as the cause.

Apparently the interlock that prevents the car being taken out of Park senses that the brakes are applied before it will allow a gear to be selected.

And it uses the actual brake light circuit to determine this, meaning that if the brake lights aren't working, the car thinks the brakes haven't been applied and refuses to let the transmission out of Park.

We wonder how many mechanics have torn out all their hair trying to figure that one out.

Our rating: 3.5 stars

Nuts and bolts

Engine/s: 2.0 4-cyl

Transmissions: 4-auto/5-man/6-auto/6-man

Fuel economy (combined): 7.5 litres per 100km

Safety rating (courtesy of www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au): Not listed (but Kia Cerato on which the Koup is based scored 4 stars)

Likes:

Looks groovy from pretty much any angle.

Great value.

Brilliant factory warranty still applies.

Capped-price servicing.

Dislikes:

Early automatics were four-speed only.

Engine can be harsh when used hard.

Not as sporty to drive as it is to look at.

Interior plastics look cheap and can squeak and rattle.

Competitors

Volkswagen Polo GTi

Undisputed king of the hot littlies. Real performance and great handling. Only plain looks let it down a bit. Reliability sometimes patchy. 4 stars

Hyundai Tiburon

A conventional coupe in the Celica mould, the Hyundai has the option of a V6 engine to give it some real ability. Looks distinctive, drives reasonably. 3.5 stars

Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback

Popular package and well understood by the trade. Doesn't have South Korean baggage, but that's less important as the years pass. Practical design. 3.5 stars